Soprano Margaret Ozaki Graves sings with the Denver Art Song Project. (Provided by the Denver Art Song Project)

Classical fans have never had to look hard to find opera or symphonic music along the Front Range. There are plenty of orchestras and presenting groups, large and small, professional and volunteer, putting on concerts across the region.

But one thing has long been missing here: recitals featuring art songs — the small, free-standing gems classical composers have created over time that showcase tenors, sopranos and other singers in an intimate fashion, most often with only a piano accompanying them on stage.

The fledgling Denver Art Song Project is working to change that. The group, formed in 2015, is now presenting a regular season of concerts aimed at audiences who prefer their Schubert, Strauss and Schumann pared down to its basics. For people who are not familiar with the art song genre, think of it as classical music in cabaret form. The pieces are often brief character studies or short narratives, and always full of drama.

“This is a vital little genre and I like it because it lends itself to conversing directly with an audience,” said tenor Eapen Leubner, one of the group’s founders. “And it lends itself to so many different educational opportunities.”

The Denver Art Songs Project is a professional group — and that’s good news for local audiences. The singers and musicians always get paid for their work so the material is delivered at a high level. Still, the concerts do have an educational side that aims to be welcoming to newcomers. The performers chat with the audience, offering a little history and context for the compositions they’re presenting. To help listeners connect, English translations of the songs, which are often written in German, French or Italian, are projected as supertitles during live events.

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The group has a wide-ranging approach to its musical advocacy and stages events across the Front Range. This month’s program of songs titled “Monsters, Creatures & Legends” will be performed in Denver, Littleton and Fort Collins. There are both evening and matinee events and the early shows are kid-friendly.

DASP also has an evolving channel online on YouTube featuring subtitled performances by its singers. They’re not meant as marketing devices like a lot of the video content posted by nonprofit arts groups, but as another dimension of its outreach, as entertainment that introduces singers to the widest audience possible.

“We want to make sure we are building the legacy of our artists,” Leubner said.

A recent post of soprano Sarah Stone singing Schubert’s somber yet spirited love song, “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” is a good example of the top-quality work that DASP produces. For the record, (and for classical fans in the know) DASP defines an art song broadly as any composition from the traditions of “German Lieder, French Chanson and Italian Canzone, American Art Songs and American Folk Songs that are arranged by leading composers,” such as Aaron Copland.

As far as the musical lineup DASP programs for its concerts, that’s meant to cover a lot of ground, as well, and that is evident just from titles of upcoming events. The next set of concerts, in December, will be “Outsiders: Song Cycles from the Fringe” and that is followed by “Pillars of African American Song” in February.

The final program of the season will be “April Fool’s Songs” in April and it will feature pieces on the humorous side.

Interestingly, DASP is thinking longer than spring 2018. It wants to develop audiences of the future and singers to entertain them and is currently sponsoring a 2018 High School Art Song Competition and inviting music students from across Colorado to enter.

Competitors will prepare three songs — two in foreign languages, one in English — and then perform them before a panel of judges. The winners will get prizes and opportunities to attend master classes with DASP singers and to perform live at a future concert.

“We want to help prepare them for what it’s like to compete as a soloist,” said Leubner. “To get them comfortable with the rules of how you dress and how you present yourself and offer the kind of feedback that makes singers better.”

The Denver Art Song Project will present “Monsters, Creatures & Legends” on Wed., Oct. 25, at Colorado State University’s Organ Recital Hall, in Fort Collins; Friday, Oct. 27, at St. Frances Cabrini Church in Littleton; and Sunday, Oct. 29, at the Wash Park Center for Music and Arts. More information at denverartsongproject.org.